Jan 23, 2013

Union membership falls to lowest percentage in 76 years

(Reuters) - The percentage of workers belonging to unions tumbled to 11.3 percent in 2012, the lowest percentage in 76 years, led by dramatic declines in states where lawmakers have put organized labor in the political crosshairs, government figures showed on Wednesday.

The total number of union members fell by nearly 400,000, from 11.8 percent of the workforce in 2011, the Labor Department report on union membership said. The rate of 11.3 percent of the workforce was the lowest since 1936, when Franklin Roosevelt was president. ...

... Some analysts blame unions for the drop.
Membership has been falling since 2008, when it was 16.1 million, or
12.4 percent of the workforce, federal data shows. It peaked in 1954,
when 28.3 percent of workers were represented by organized labor.

"They must now admit that they are not investing
enough staff and funds in organizing and not embarking on an
imaginative journey to rediscover the relevancy of unions," said Gary
Chaison, professor of industrial relations at Clark University.
"Essentially, workers are feeling tremendous job insecurity ... Yet as
today's figures suggest, workers are not turning to unions to act as
their voice." ...